No, we’re not driving back to Mesa, at least not yet, but I just saw some pictures that I meant to put in much earlier but never got around to it.
Remember that I said that we had a nice grapefruit tree in front of out RV that was just packed with ripe grapefruits. Not now. Nope, we stripped it bare. We had watered it, had kept the well around it clear of leaves and I had even spent time painting the bricks around the little well. ‘Finders Keepers’ and ‘You snooze, you loose’. We had thought we’d take them with us to California and eat them as we went. Well, a friend reminded us that the California Agriculture department stops all vehicles at the border with AZ and asks if they have any fruit and/or vegetables. Then they confiscate what they think they should to protect CA agriculture. Oh, yeah, I had forgotten about that. My aunt Betty, who had wintered in southern AZ for many years told me that she ‘heard’ that someone had hidden quite a few grapefruits in their RV and left 2 out - the sacrificial grapefruits. At the border, she said ‘we have a few grapefruits’ and gave them those 2 and drove away with the hidden grapefruits.
Hmmm. Well, we decided that we’d peel them and put them in the refrigerator. What CA really doesn’t want is the rinds which sometimes have mites in them. So, one day, Gary picked the tree bare and we spent time cutting them and taking out the fruit. Here’s the happy grapefruit picker/packer working on the last few. This is not even a 1/4 of what we packed.
There are lots of clubs and activities here at Val Vista. One of the biggest is the quilting group. There is even a whole Fiber Arts building. And, I’ve heard that some women even choose to live here in Val Vista rather than other resorts because there is a ‘Long Arm’ quilting machine. Here is the fiber arts room in the evening.
And here is the long arm. Now, I had to take the picture through the window since the room was locked. You have to be trained on this before you can use it. Eat your hearts out, Betty, Sherron and Mary. There is also a material/sewing store right around the corner with stacks and stacks of material and other quilting supplies. They sell both used and new machines and even have classes. What a waste - all this quilting and all I do is hike.
Also right around the corner is Southwest Pottery which sells lots of things besides pottery. I liked these flowers but check out the metal horse in back of me. This place has tons of these metal sculptures: brontosauruses, horses, stage coaches, giraffes, elephants, in all sizes.
We had to take the Jeep in for some maintenance. The rear differential had to be completely redone back in Iowa to the tune of many dollars. But, Gary noticed some strange noises coming from it while we were driving down here. The Jeep repairs were still under warranty so we took it in and they told us that the rear end had to be redone. They hadn’t tightened a seal like they were supposed to. Or something like that. Here I am in the Jeep showroom, waiting for the shuttle to take us to the - Library. Well, where else were we supposed to go while the work was being done? About 4:00 we called. Oh, yes, the work is not done yet, we’ll pick you up and take you home and then pick you up tomorrow when it is done.
And, the obligatory library picture.
Every Thursday at the resort they had a coffee donut meeting to tell us of upcoming activities. They always give prizes away at this meeting - as if the free donuts and coffee weren’t enough to bring us all together. Gary and I know we’re probably not going to go to many of the activities so we don’t usually go to the meetings. This Thursday, thinking that we were going to buy a home in the resort, we decided to go. We got out tickets and sat there talking with out neighbors - from Nebraska. They called off several numbers and distributed the prizes. Then they called off one number and I checked out ticket. Ah, the last two numbers match. She read the number again and - I won - a cool Val Vista jacket and, though it was labeled a Large, it fit me perfectly. Two numbers later and Gary had won a bottle of wine.
We’ve been to two of the Thursday meetings and won two prizes. Whoo-eee. Let’s hit the casino. Note that there are still grapefruit in the tree in this picture. Obviously, we haven’t picked them all yet. And, also note the water in our driveway. We had quite a rainstorm over the night. I can see that our car is gone. This must be the day that the Jeep dealer is going to call us to tell us that our Jeep is ready.
Finally, Gary takes lots of pictures of the workings of the RV so that he can analyze them, or send them to the online help services or know how to put things back together once he has taken them apart or to compare what it looks like now with the future to see if there are any changes. I usually don’t use these pictures in my blog but here is an example of Gary’s photographic work. This is our water heater which sits in the closet. He’s already taken all the wooden framework which goes around this off so he can get at it. Note the arrows and wording. He’s labeled it so he knows how the water flows through it.
Gary loves plumbing pictures. Here’s our hot water heater from the side. Cool pics, Big Gar. Of the 70,000 pictures that we have. probably 10,000 are of the insides of the RV. It might sound like I’m disparaging him but I think he does a great job with our RV. He does most of the repairs himself so he saves us lots of money but he also ensures that the repair is done right. He also understands the workings and, if we need to hire someone to do the work, he can talk intelligently about it and know if it was done right.
Every year the resort has a Christmas parade that rolls through the streets. Everyone sits around in their lawn chairs and the ‘floats’ throw candy at us. Hmmm. Here are two of the floats. You might think these are tricked out golf carts and you might be right.
I think that’s all for Mesa. How about Alaska? Here’s one picture that I didn’t ever put in. It’s a picture of the North Pacific Fur Fish. Truly a rare sight in the Alaskan waters. The fur coat is an adaptation to the frigid glacial waters of the area. This is one of only a few ever caught. New information just in suggests that the Fur Fish is still alive but had adapted even more since this specimen was caught. It is rumored that one caught recently was not fur covered but was instead covered in Gore-Rex with a Thinsulate liner. WOW! Isn’t nature amazing?
HA HA. 😂😂
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